.....hear an uproar from whom-ever the local ISP is in the area, for squashing competition?

Or will that complaint never materialize because Google has scads more money than Lafayette LA?

NV

edited....Blastm y fatf ingers!

Not sure how creating your own backbone is "squashing competition". Given the noise the RBOCs and cable companies have made regarding making companies like Google pay extra for transiting their networks, it only makes sense that Google minimize their exposure as much as possible, doncha think? It would suck to have to pay a tariff to AT&T just because your packets transited their backbone on the way to/from user X on some regional ISP.

-tom--"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis